The first time I ever heard the band Canned Heat was when I first listened to the original Woodstock soundtrack - the old triple album set. For years after that they were the band whose vocalist sang in falsetto. It was until years latter when I picked up a copy of director's cut on DVD of the movie version of Woodstock that I even discovered there was another vocalist in Canned Heat.

Bob "Bear" Hite wasn't called Bear for nothing. He looked like somebody from another age, a veritable mountain of a man with a mane of shaggy black hair and a black beard that you would call biblical if the man wearing wasn't so wonderfully profane. Watching the footage of Canned Heat that had been added to the extended version of Woodstock I had no idea who or what I was watching. There was this huge guy on stage belting out a Blues tune and growling like a wild thing.

My first thought was some biker had commandeered the microphone from whatever band happened to be playing at the time. I thought my assumption about the biker was confirmed, about the biker when I read it was Canned Heat performing. Canned Heat's lead singer was a falsetto not some big bear who looked like he ate falsettos for breakfast.

That's when I found out that there was more than one vocalist in Canned Heat. I was saddened to hear that he had died young -- from a heart attack -- but I don't think I was too surprised. He was an awfully big man and if he lived with anywhere near the abandon with which he performed, well let's just say it would have put quite a strain on anybody's heart. I don't know if this is true - and I'm sure someone will correct this information if it's wrong - but I seem to recall reading something about him having the heart attack that killed him while rehearsing with the band after rejoining them in 1980 for a couple of gigs.

Considering his passion for the music, it seems only appropriate that he would leave in that manner. It turns out that not only was Bob an accomplished Blues vocalist, harmonica player, and guitarist he was also an avid collector of older music dating back to the days of 78 rpm records. Long before he helped found Canned Heat he'd begun his collection of records; by the time of his death he had amassed a massive collection. Unfortunately a great deal of his collection vanished when Bob shuffled off somewhere else, but fortunately some few hundred records ended up in the safe hands of Adolpho "Fito" De La Parra, Canned Heat's drummer for more then 40 years.

Walter De Paduwa, better known as Dr. Boogie, is a musicologist and radio personality from the town of Overijse Belgium who also happens to be a friend of De La Parra. Together the two men have started the laborious process of taking those old 78s and transferring then onto CD so that these treasures can be preserved. Rarities From The Bob Hite Vaults on the Sub Rosa label is the first compilation that's been made available. If the 19 tracks on this disc are an indication of the quality of the material that they have at their disposal, we can only hope they will make this a continuing series.